Both artists combine technology and craft in creating complex woven structures, drawing us into surreal weightless worlds. They bring a sense of the un- known, a dynamic colourful intertwining of play and possibility that also resonates in the meticulously hand-embroidered works of Japanese artist, Toshiko Iwasaki. Threading his imaginary worlds together with a multicoloured composition, his aerial landscapes bring to life the every- day, what Piet Mondrian referred to as “dynamic equilibrium”. Iwasaki’s organic forms play with the duality of horizontal and vertical composition, though in a more fluid nature than the Dutch modern- ist before him.

Imaginative play takes many forms for contemporary weavers and, at Japan’s Hakone Open-Air Museum, children are given the opportunity to delve into a woven world of colour through the work of Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam. The Japanese-born, Canadian creator of this massive textile playground uses crocheted nylon to create a space where children can engage with a world that is usually untouchable.

There is a sense of discovery in the mesh of modern weaving, tying worlds and ideas together with reference to the traditions of the utilitarian craft. In her own way Australian artist, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, is reinventing these traditions through finely woven glass blended with the memories of upbringing. Ancient cultural practices are captured in her work with an evocative translucency that belies their rigidity. The forms, reminiscent of the baskets and fish traps she observed be- ing made in her youth, are also a reference point for Darwin’s Aly de Groot. Using marine debris, de Groot explores the impact of climate change on our oceans through her Underwater Basket Weaving series. Exhibited in the Northern Territory Wildlife Park’s underwater aquarium, the ethereal works remind us of the weightless and translucent creatures that inhabit our oceans and the impact we have on marine life.